Mäkitalo was born in Koutojärvi, Sweden, and obtained a Master"s degree in Electrical Engineering from Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan), while studying for a time he employed as a training assistant and lecturer at the Department of Physics at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan.
In the early 1970s, he was accepted as a Doctor of Philosophy student at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, with Tele Transmission theory as a major and a minor in mathematics.
He is considered to be the father of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system and many times the father of cellular phone. He started his professional career in 1961 at Televerket (now merged with TeliaSonera), the Swedish Telecommunications Administration, where he developed the first expansion compressor for high-quality sound. He was a visiting professor at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan since 2005.
Mäkitalo assisted the development of first ever first generation cellular system and was also a key figure in the development of Group Special Mobile. Mäkitalo was the part of the group that developed the world"s first countrywide paging system with the possibility of sending messages.
In addition, he has partaken in the development of the technology for digital television sound and digital terrestrial television Mäkitalo held about 20 patents, including one on a cellular system with roaming and handover from 1971 (the year after Bell labs applied for patent on a similar system). He was an honorary doctor at Chalmers University of Technology.
Mäkitalo won numerous awards and honors, some of them were: 1987 - IVA"s gold medal for the development of mobile phone technology. 1991 - Received honorary doctorate at Chalmers University of Technology. 1994 - Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan Grand Prize by The Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan) for Pioneering Research in the Field of Analogue and Digital Radio Technique. 2001 - H. M. The King"s Medal from the King of Sweden for important contributions in the field of mobile telephone.
Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences]
He was the elected member of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
